Surface winding device



'Nov. 3, 1970 E MALL"; ETAL 3,537,664

SURFACE WINDING DEVICE Filed Oct. 9, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 THOMAS 1/PERCO/VT/ INVE TORS A TTORNE s a AGE/VT HOWAROR DEMALL/E' -NOV. 3, 197005 MALUE ETAL 3,537,664

SURFACE WINDING DEVICE Filed Oct; 9, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 HOWARD R.DEMALL If I THOMAS J. PE ROOM 7'/ Z INVENTORS NOV. 3,1970 I DE MALUEETAL 3,537,664

SURFACE WINDING DEVICE Filed on. 1968 s Sheets-sheaf z A Tron/V96 aAGE/V7 United States Patent ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A surface windingdevice for winding a narrow strip into a flangeless roll at high speed.The strip comes from a slitter to a roll nested between rotatable driveand idler drums.

The present invention relates to a surface winding device and moreparticularly to a windup device for high speed winding of flangelessrolls of narrow webs of photographic film.

Surface windup devices have been previously used for the winding ofvarious web materials. For example, wide webs of paper have been woundon devices having spaced drums. The rolls of paper are wound whilenested between these drums and it has been found thatthe rolls can bewound very tightly if one drum is driven at a relatively faster speedthan the other so that additional tension is created in the web. Whilethis procedure of surface winding is acceptable in many situations, itcreates certain gioblems when used with narrow webs of photographic Asignificant problem encountered in the surface winding of photographicfilm is abrasion or similar damage of the film base or its sensitizedcoatings. In the surface winding techniques of the above prior art, onewinding drum is intentionally driven at a speed relatively faster thanthe other so that tension is produced on the web. When this technique isused on photographic film the slip between the drum and nested rollintroduces an undesirable frictional abrasion to the film. Anothersimilar problem encountered in the surface winding of photographic filmis that, at high winding speeds, the hard nested rolls being wound maybounce or vibrate against one or both of the driving drums. Thiscondition may cause damage to photographic film, especially to thesensitized coatings which are easily damaged 'by abnormal pressures andtensions created during vibrations. Bouncing of the web roll alsointroduces variations in winding tension and, consequently, variationsin the hardness of the wound roll. A further problem created by surfacewinding results when narrow webs are wound into flangeless rolls. Underthese circumstances the rolls tend to display uneven side walls. Forinstance, when rolls of narrow webs are surface wound to any substantialdiameter, their sides tend to dish.

An object of the present invention is to provide a surface windup devicewhich does not. subject the nested roll to slip and the resulting damagetherefrom.

Another object of the invention is to provide a highspeed surface windupdevice which produces a hard roll without subjecting the nested roll toundesirable rebound forces.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a surface windupdevice which can produce a flangeless wound roll from a narrow webwithout undesirable nonuniformities in the side walls of the roll.

A further object of the invention is to provide a surface windup devicefor winding photographic film strip.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparentto those skilled in the art by the descripice tion of a preferredembodiment of the invention which follows.

The above objects are accomplished by winding a web roll between acompliant-surfaced drive drum and a relatively hard-surfaced idler drum.Further, during winding, the web roll is provided with lateral supportand the peripheral velocities of the web roll and the drums areequalized.

Reference is now made to the accompanying drawings wherein likereference numerals and characters designate like parts and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the arrangement of a plurality ofsurface windup devices in conjunction with a slitting machine.

FIG. 2 is a side view, with portions broken away, of a single surfacewindup device.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view along line 3-3 of the surface windup deviceof FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a windup device showing a web being woundinto a nested web roll.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic of a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention. Windup devices 1, 1' are supplied with strips S from aslitting machine 2. A plurality of windup devices 1, 1 can be mounted onthe top and bottom banks, respectively, on a suitable frame (not shown).The slitting machine 2 takes a wide web W from roll R and slits it intonarrow strips S which are supplied to the windup devices. Slittingmachine 2 includes a spice board 3, slitter knives 4, and metering driveroll 5. Rolls 6, 6 are used to equalize the strip lengths between upperand lower banks. The strips S are fed to upper and lower windup units 1,1' which have drive drums 7, 7'. These drums are driven from the maindrive of the slitting machine (not shown). A drive shaft is insertedthrough the center 8, 8 of the drive drums. Two of these shafts span thewidth of the windup assembly and drive the plurality of windup devicesin each bank. The drive shafts for the drive drums 7, 7 are connectedthereto through magnetic hysteresis couplings which are described inmore detail in a further paragraph. The drive shafts 8, 8 are driventhrough gearing (not shown) such that they produce an approximate 7%overdrive tendency to the surface of the drive drums 7, 7'. The slipassociated with this overdrive occurs in the magnetic hysteresiscoupling.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show more details of the individual windup devicesreferred to above in connection with FIG. 1. The windup device has ahousing 9 which consists of two cast and machined aluminum plates 10, 10bolted together. All of the component parts for the windup device arecarried between, and supported by the cast housing. As best seen in FIG.2, the roll 11 being wound is rotated in a semicircular cavity cast inthe housing side plate 9. The roll 11, as it is wound, is prevented fromleaning and rubbing against the housing sides by a hub 12 inserted inthe core 13. The hub 12 projects beyond the width of the core 13 andstrip and spans the width of the housing cavity to provide centralsupport to the roll 11, as shown in FIG. 3.

The drive drum 7 rotates the roll 11 being wound by surface contact withthe strip S. The drive drum 7 is driven through a magnetic hysteresiscoupling 14. The drive drum 7 is covered with a molded tire 16 which ismade of a suitable shock-absorbing material having a relatively highcoefficient of friction, such as polyurethane. The action of tire 16 isto absorb shock, to reduce rebound and vibration, and to maintainfrictional driving contact with the winding roll 11, even duringvibration periods. The magnetic coupling includes an inner member 17which is rotated at a higher speed than the drive drum 7 during winding.Permanent magnets 18 on the inner member 17 create a tendency drive forthe drive drum 7 which is connected to the magnetic hysteresis member23. As described above, the drive drum 7 matches the speed of the stripthrough the slitter 2. Therefore, the overdrive of the inner member 17creates slip in the coupling between the drive drum 7 and the innermember 17. The amount of torque in the coupling can be adjusted bychanging the relationship of the poles of magnets 18, as is well knownin the art.

A flanged idler drum 19, together with the drive drum 7 forms the rollnest in which the core 13 and the winding roll 11 are carried. As bestseen in FIG. 2, the flanged idler drum 19 transports the strip S aroundits lower circumference, and guides the strip onto the winding roll 11.The winding roll 11 is embraced by the flanges of the drive and idlerdrums, 7 and 19 respectively, with a slight amount of clearance. Thecloseness of the fit between the strip and the flanges contributes tothe evenness of the wound rolls side surfaces. The hardness of the woundroll has been found to be a function of the force component between theroll and the flanged idlers surface 20.

The flanged follower roll 21 rides the periphery of the winding roll 11.The follower roll 21 is guided by tracks 22 machined in the castaluminum housing 9 and rises vertically as the roll 11 grows indiameter. The follower roll 21, together with the flanged idler anddrive drums, and core hub 12, establishes a plane in which the roll 11winds without dishing.

As an example of the present invention, a wide web of photographic filmhas been slit to 16 mm. width and and wound into a multiplicity of 18"diameter flangeless rolls at the speed of 500 feet per minute. Thecompleted rolls had substantially even sides, were hard enough to staywound during further handling, and the photographic sensitivity of thefilm was not adversely affected by any undue tensions or abrasionscreated during winding. It should be apparent to those persons skilledin the art that other widths and kinds of strips or webs are suited forwinding according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view illustrating some of the principles involvedin the present invention. Strip S is directed onto the lower portion ofidler drum 19 by a roller 22 or other suitable guide means. The strip Sthen is wound onto a roll 11 nested between drive drum 7 and idler drum19. The roll 11 is built up after the leading end of strip S is cinchedonto a core 13. As the roll 11 increases in diameter, it lifts a movablefollower roll 21. Drive drum 7 is covered with a compliant, frictionaltire 16 which effectively locks the drive drum to the surface of thewinding roll 11. Idler drum 19 has a relatively hard surface 20 such aspolished steel, although it may be covered with a thin layer of plasticto reduce the possibility of scratching the surface of the strip S.

Drive drum 7 transmits winding torque to the roll 11 during winding. Thetorque is supplied from a central shaft which is coupled to the drivedrum 7 by a tendency coupling shown schematically at 14. The tendencycoupling insures that the drive drum 7 will have a peripheral velocitythe same as that of the roll 11. Idler drum 19 is freely rotatable andfollows the velocity of the winding roll at their point of contact.Since the peripheral velocities of the drive and idler drums areequalized with the rolls, there is practically no relative slip betweenthe roll and the drums over the range of speeds at which winding isaccomplished. This eliminates frictional damage to the surface of thestrip.

The hardness of the wound roll is a function of force F and has beenfound to be relatively independent of the tension in the strip Supstream from the windup device.

The invention has been described in detail with particular reference topreferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variationsand modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of theinvention as described hereinabove and as defined in the appendedclaims.

We claim:

1. In an apparatus for winding web material supplied thereto at a givenrate into a roll thereof, and which apparatus includes:

(a) a housing (10),

(b) first (19) and second (7) spaced-apart drums supported by saidhousing (10) and adapted for rotation in substantially the same plane,said first drum (19) being adapted for free rotation thereof, and saidfirst (19) and second (7) drums being adapted to have nestedtherebetween, and in contact therewith, a core (13) upon which the saidroll of web material is to be formed,

the improvement wherein said second drum (7) comprises:

(a) first and second parts adapted for relative rotation insubstantially the same plane, said first part supporting about itsperiphery a friction member (16), and supporting within said peripheryan hysteretic element (23),

(b) magnetic means (18), and

(c) a drive shaft (8) adapted for rotation, said second relativelyrotatable part being secured to said drive shaft 8) for rotationthereby, and said secured relatively rotatable part being adapted tosupport the said magnetic means (18) for magnetic coupling with the saidhysteretic element (23).

2. The apparatus of claim 1 including a follower roll (21) and means forsupporting said follower roll (21) in substantially the same plane assaid first and second drums, and said first drum and said follower rollhaving peripheral flanges for guiding said web, said first part of saidsecond drum also having peripheral flanges for guiding said web, andsaid friction member of said first part of said second drum being of ashock-absorbing resilient material.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,169,016 8/1939 Baker 242-75512,717,037 9/1955 Goodwillie 242-66 XR 2,985,398 5/1961 Rockstrom et a1242- 2,990,484 6/1961 Jones 242-7551 XR 3,178,125 4/1965 Greding 242-663,240,442 3/1966 Kilmartin 242-66 3,279,717 10/ 1966 Schubert 242-58.4

STANLEY N. GILREATH, Primary Examiner W. H. SCHROEDER, AssistantExaminer U.S. Cl. X.R. 242-755

